Memories of the Sword

I was curious to see how the big Korean blockbuster battle between Assassination and Memories of the Sword would turn out. The loser is pretty obvious from my review. The film has solid visuals, is nicely R-rated, but the action scenes are disappointing. Not only is wu-xia one of my least favourite kind of martial art, but even the cinematography and editing are pretty poor, which I don't really understand in addition to the overall look of the film. It's also disappointing that Byeong-heon Lee does more acting than fighting, but fortunately villain roles suit him. Of the action scenes, of which there were quite a few, I was impressed with the one before the finale, which is pleasantly brutal and is in the style of samurai slaughter, the finale itself is too far-fetched, they fly like in The Matrix, which I’m not a fan of. 55% Weak in places and rather drawn out. (2015-12-18)